A budding relationship

Eclipse Coffee Roasters first hired Ashton Construction Services (ACS) to manage the commercial construction of a new coffee shop in downtown Canmore in 2019. In addition to the build itself, this project required the full demolition of the interior.

Supporting Eclipse’s next step

Two years later, when Eclipse decided to build a café and roastery on Railway Ave, ACS was the first choice. With the companies’ mutual respect, passion for supporting local, and track record of success, it simply made sense to team up again. At 4,000 square feet, this build was a much more ambitious project than the first.

A gorgeous new community space

ACS managed the construction of the new café and roastery from beginning to end. This project included demolition and modifications allowing for a to-code weight-bearing second floor. Every day, owner Dean Smolicz receives compliments from customers on the location’s ambience and design elements (provided by Nest Design and Drafting Studio).

Coffee in the family

About 12 years ago, Dean Smolicz started looking for ways to put down roots in Canmore. Inspired by his aunts and uncles, who had started a coffee roastery in the U.K., Smolicz seized the opportunity to start a business that could sustain his family long-term.

“The coffee scene was developing in Australia and Europe, where the coffee’s a lot lighter and a bit fruitier, with all these interesting flavours coming through,” he says. “But there wasn’t much in North America yet.”

Eclipse Coffee Roasters opened in the summer of 2014. Now, in addition to buying beans from the roastery, Canmore residents can enjoy the company’s freshly roasted coffee in three different cafés.

“We import green coffee, roast it, and then sell it by the bag—wholesale and retail,” says Smolicz. “Then the roastery supports the cafés.”

Coffee shop complexities

Word of mouth for the win

Smolicz decided to partner with Ashton Construction Services on the 8th Street location. When he started talking to other businesses about ACS’s work, including Rocky Mountain Soap Company, it quickly became clear he’d made the right decision.

“Ashton Construction Services was highly recommended by all of them,” says Smolicz. “ACS put together a presentation, and it was very professional. I have an engineering background, so it was important for me to see how they organized the project and timeline. It was all very well laid out.”

Eclipse was also pleased with ACS’s creativity and flexibility when it came to budgeting. “They were clear about the budget up-front,” says Smolicz. “They also helped us figure out where we could save money.”

That initial meeting went well, but Smolicz had already made the decision to hire ACS before the presentation began. “Steve Ashton, the founder, CEO, and president of ACS, lives here and grew up here–and so did my wife. All that helped.”

A time-tested partnership

ACS and Eclipse started work on the 8th Street café in September 2019. In addition to keeping the project rolling and managing budgetary issues whenever they arose, ACS was instrumental in helping to source tradespeople. The construction firm also connected Eclipse with a designer, Jessie Ashton of Nest Design and Drafting Studio.

“Steve mentioned that his wife does design work,” says Smolicz. “It was an easy choice to make because they work together on lots of different projects. I based that decision on word-of-mouth too, and by checking out other projects they’ve done together.”

The team completed the build in January 2020, on-time and on-budget. So when Smolicz decided to build the new roastery and café on Railway Avenue, he didn’t hesitate to work with ACS and Nest again. For this location, Eclipse wanted a large, bright, open event space with a kitchen and a mezzanine floor overlooking the roasting operations.

ACS developed a plan and established a budget, and in February 2022, they began working together to ensure that all of the health and safety regulations would be met. Everything went smoothly until ACS opened up the second floor and discovered that it wasn’t up to code. Fortunately, ACS is experienced in mitigating requirements and the costs associated with them.

“They were really good about identifying it and finding a fix,” says Smolicz. “They helped us financially as well, by finding ways to bring the budget back down without sacrificing quality.

ACS also made up some of the lost time by being strategic with materials. “ACS was able to provide a lot of useful supply chain information,” says Smolicz. “The ceiling of the first floor, for example, could have been wood or steel. Either would have done the job. But one was going to take more than 6 weeks to arrive. We ended up going with some steel where we had to, just to get the project moving.”

The rest of the project went well, from demolishing the current space and making structural modifications to the second floor, to building the open viewing space and installing the commercial roaster and coffee bar. Even with the large structural mitigations that needed to be done in order to ensure the safety of the space, ACS was still able to meet Eclipse’s approved timeline.

Bright space, happy customers

Smolicz is thrilled with the new space—and speaks highly of the construction and design teams that helped make it happen. “After working through the first project, they got to know me and the business pretty well. This made it much easier with the second project, because they remembered what we did the first time.”

This pre-established relationship also allowed for open communication. When Smolicz had an idea, he never hesitated to express it. “They’re always willing to adapt to different things—nothing is ever too much. Their goal is to make you happy.”

Smolicz says for him, success is measured in customer feedback—and the customers are thrilled. “The front bar area is a huge feature,” he says. “It’s the first thing people see when they walk in. But it’s really just the whole atmosphere. It’s become a community space. People can come and have meetings or get togethers. We have a small kids’ area in the corner that we’ve had lots of comments on.”

Photos: Eva Urbanska

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